Academic Careers and Work in Europe: Trends, Challenges, Perspectives

Abstract

This is the third and last volume of a series presenting the results of a European comparative research project analysing changes of the academic profession in Europe (EuroAC). The project involved higher education researchers from eight countries (Austria, Croatia, Finland, Germany, Ireland, Poland, Romania and Switzerland), who were funded by their national research funding councils while the overall project was supported by the European Science Foundation as part of their EuroHESC Programme (European Higher Education and Social Change). This volume offers insights derived from more than 500 interviews with institutional leaders, junior and senior academics as well as new higher education professionals (HEPROs). The interviews were carried out by using a matrix structure with a common core of questions followed by three thematic focuses, on governance, on academic careers and on forms of professionalisation in higher education. The researcher teams from Finland and Romania focused on the effects of new forms of institutional governance on the work situation of academics; the researcher teams from Austria, Poland and Switzerland on changes in academic careers; and the researcher teams from Croatia, Germany and Ireland on professionalisation processes among various groups within higher education institutions. In addition to the particular thematic focus each researcher team also carried out a smaller number of interviews on the other two focuses so that all three focuses could include a comparative perspective of all eight countries involved in the study.

This final chapter provides a synthesis for each of the three thematic focuses and offers some final conclusions about the overall results and insights which can be derived from the interviews.